You may remember in March I mentioned that one of the things that had been revealed in Hillary Clinton's State email dump was that a trans woman from Illinois was able to start her own construction business because of the passport rule, and she wrote Clinton a letter about it and Clinton wrote her back personally. Well, there is much more about that story in this Politico article, which is at turns soooo great and so infuriating. And, for the record, Clinton has indeed bragged about that passport rule. Just enough, in my opinion, so that the people who care will know, and the people who would have tried to make trouble for trans people won't. Frankly, if there's someone who would have a higher opinion of Clinton if they knew, and they're all bent out of joint that they didn't, that's not on Clinton. That's on the people who don't care enough about trans rights to know about a major trans rights milestone.

[Content Note: Murder; racism; video may autoplay at link] "A Baltimore judge on Thursday ordered a new trial for Adnan Syed, adding a new chapter to a two-decade-old murder case propelled to international attention by the popular podcast 'Serial.' Syed, now 35, has been serving a life sentence since 2000, when he was convicted of killing ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee the year before. ...Retired Judge Martin Welch, who had denied Syed's previous request for a new trial, vacated Syed's conviction Thursday and said questions about cellphone tower evidence should have been raised by his trial team. The ruling came four months after a hearing that included testimony from an alibi witness who had been featured in 'Serial.'" At ThinkProgress, Judd Legum explains why there will nonetheless probably not be a new trial. (Previously on Serial: Part One and Part Two.)

[CN: Transphobia] I mentioned yesterday that some of the new guidelines on trans troops seemed problematic to me. In today's Guardian, Chelsea Manning raises those concerns, too, as well as noting that the revised guidelines make no mention of trans military personnel who are incarcerated.

[CN: War on agency] GOOD: "Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted a preliminary injunction against [several provisions of Indiana's omnibus anti-abortion] law's final disposition and sex, race, and genetic anomalies ban on Thursday, just a day before the law was to take effect. ...Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana to file a lawsuit and request an injunction in April, according to a local ABC affiliate. Under the provisions halted by the injunction, pregnant persons across the state would have been banned from aborting a fetus based on an abnormality or race or gender-related reasons, among others."

[CN: Racism] "In the aftermath of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' board pledged to restructure its governance and increase its internal diversity. It took a major step in that direction with yesterday's (June 29) announcement of its 2016 class of new members. ...The incoming class of 683 members—the Academy's largest ever—is 46 percent female and 41 percent people of color, and represents 60 countries." That sounds like a promising start, especially given that the new class "includes several notable performers and creators of color who have vocally criticized Hollywood's erasure of people of color and structural racism before, during and after the #OscarsSoWhite outrage." Fingers crossed!

"Donald Trump used money donated for charity to buy himself a Tim Tebow-signed football helmet." Of course he did.

OMG this may be the best Facebook status ever posted: R. Eric Thomas, commenting on a picture of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and US President Barack Obama walking down a hallway together, writes: "Whoever took this photo deserves a GD Pulitzer Prize. We may be two minutes from doomsday but thank the Lordt we still live in a universe where three world leaders can strut into a room like they're the new interracial male cast of Sex and the City. Like I have ALREADY prepurchased tickets to this film. Out here in these streets looking like Career Day Ken. Looking like Destiny's DILF." And it just gets better from there! CRYING.

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In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

You may remember in March I mentioned that one of the things that had been revealed in Hillary Clinton's State email dump was that a trans woman from Illinois was able to start her own construction business because of the passport rule, and she wrote Clinton a letter about it and Clinton wrote her back personally. Well, there is much more about that story in this Politico article, which is at turns soooo great and so infuriating. And, for the record, Clinton has indeed bragged about that passport rule. Just enough, in my opinion, so that the people who care will know, and the people who would have tried to make trouble for trans people won't. Frankly, if there's someone who would have a higher opinion of Clinton if they knew, and they're all bent out of joint that they didn't, that's not on Clinton. That's on the people who don't care enough about trans rights to know about a major trans rights milestone.

[Content Note: Murder; racism; video may autoplay at link] "A Baltimore judge on Thursday ordered a new trial for Adnan Syed, adding a new chapter to a two-decade-old murder case propelled to international attention by the popular podcast 'Serial.' Syed, now 35, has been serving a life sentence since 2000, when he was convicted of killing ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee the year before. ...Retired Judge Martin Welch, who had denied Syed's previous request for a new trial, vacated Syed's conviction Thursday and said questions about cellphone tower evidence should have been raised by his trial team. The ruling came four months after a hearing that included testimony from an alibi witness who had been featured in 'Serial.'" At ThinkProgress, Judd Legum explains why there will nonetheless probably not be a new trial. (Previously on Serial: Part One and Part Two.)

[CN: Transphobia] I mentioned yesterday that some of the new guidelines on trans troops seemed problematic to me. In today's Guardian, Chelsea Manning raises those concerns, too, as well as noting that the revised guidelines make no mention of trans military personnel who are incarcerated.

[CN: War on agency] GOOD: "Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted a preliminary injunction against [several provisions of Indiana's omnibus anti-abortion] law's final disposition and sex, race, and genetic anomalies ban on Thursday, just a day before the law was to take effect. ...Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana to file a lawsuit and request an injunction in April, according to a local ABC affiliate. Under the provisions halted by the injunction, pregnant persons across the state would have been banned from aborting a fetus based on an abnormality or race or gender-related reasons, among others."

[CN: Racism] "In the aftermath of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' board pledged to restructure its governance and increase its internal diversity. It took a major step in that direction with yesterday's (June 29) announcement of its 2016 class of new members. ...The incoming class of 683 members—the Academy's largest ever—is 46 percent female and 41 percent people of color, and represents 60 countries." That sounds like a promising start, especially given that the new class "includes several notable performers and creators of color who have vocally criticized Hollywood's erasure of people of color and structural racism before, during and after the #OscarsSoWhite outrage." Fingers crossed!

"Donald Trump used money donated for charity to buy himself a Tim Tebow-signed football helmet." Of course he did.

OMG this may be the best Facebook status ever posted: R. Eric Thomas, commenting on a picture of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and US President Barack Obama walking down a hallway together, writes: "Whoever took this photo deserves a GD Pulitzer Prize. We may be two minutes from doomsday but thank the Lordt we still live in a universe where three world leaders can strut into a room like they're the new interracial male cast of Sex and the City. Like I have ALREADY prepurchased tickets to this film. Out here in these streets looking like Career Day Ken. Looking like Destiny's DILF." And it just gets better from there! CRYING.

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